About all that stuff in the title, although not necessarily in that order.

'Modern Family' wedding: A long way from Three's Company

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By Peter Chianca

Peter Chianca's humor column, 'At Large,' has appeared on more than 100 Gatehouse Media websites and in newspapers around New England and the rest of the U.S. He lives north of Boston with his wife, two kids and an indeterminate number of dogs and
...

Peter Chianca's humor column, 'At Large,' has appeared on more than 100 Gatehouse Media websites and in newspapers around New England and the rest of the U.S. He lives north of Boston with his wife, two kids and an indeterminate number of dogs and cats. He has a lot of songs on his iPod.

The fifth season of “Modern Family” has carried with it a certain whiff of writerly desperation -- sending the entire cast to Australia was a sure sign that they might be running out of ideas. (“I know, they can go to Australia and Phil can get punched by a kangaroo!” etc.) That said, when it’s firing on all cylinders the show’s still capable of expertly executing its patented mix of absurdist humor and genuine emotion -- the season-ending two-parter on Cam and Mitch’s wedding being a perfect example.

It involved a series of typical Pritchett/Dunphy disaster scenarios, but darn it if these people can’t still milk these setups to full hilarious effect, whether it’s Phil pretending to be blind to bypass a department store line or Cam and Mitch’s reaction to Lily’s ill-fated mission to infiltrate the dry cleaners. (Which in real life could have ended in accidental strangulation, but whatever, it’s TV.)

But it was the ending of the last episode that really brought it all together, when Jay walks Mitch down the aisle and Rev. Phil marries Mitch and Cam in what can only be described as one of TV’s most moving wedding ceremonies. (Yes, right up there with Rhoda’s.) And I couldn’t help but think: We’ve come a long way since “Three’s Company.”

For those of you in the under-30 set, that was the 1970s sitcom where John Ritter “hilariously” pretended to be gay in order to get his landlord(s) to let him live with two women. It’s all horribly offensive today, of course, but as far as sitcoms where characters overhear an innocuous conversation and misinterpret it as being blatantly sexual, it’s still the gold standard.

It says something that the most realistic gay character on TV in the ’70s and early ’80s was Billy Crystal’s Jodie on “Soap,” a show that also featured devil-possessed babies and alien abductions. Then when Crystal became too popular they made him go straight, before a hypnotist turned him into an old Jewish man. Seriously.

Compare that to the “Modern Family” wedding, and the portrayal of Cam and Mitch in general -- while not mincing stereotypes (the show has the admittedly hilarious Nathan Lane for that), these guys are definitely and unapologetically gay, and their utterly normal and relatable interplay has probably done more for the marriage equality movement than Ellen and George Takei combined. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet nail the complicated emotions of a real-life relationship, and seeing the characters’ joy makes it hard to imagine anyone could begrudge it. (I know plenty of people can, it’s just hard to imagine it.)

Probably the biggest sign that times have changed from the “Three’s Company” days is that we were able to watch these episodes with our 12-year-old son -- it’s his favorite show -- and to him the same-sex Wedding of the Century was decidedly no big deal. That’s progress.